College of Health Sciences – Challenges will always be present in an ever-changing world. What matters is how people deal with these and rise above them in the process.

This could be told of the feat posted by the examinees from the Department of Pharmacy as 37 of 66 takers passed the grueling Pharmacist Licensure Examinations held Jan. 15-16. This catalogued a 56.05 percent passing rate for MMSU, a record higher than the 51.94 percent national figure – in which 576 of the 1,109 examinees from all over the country emerged as passers.

Of the mentioned number of examinees from the university, 55 took the test for the first time, from which 33 passed. The remaining 11 were re-takers, from which four are now Registered Pharmacists (RPh).  The examination dealt with professional subjects from Modules 1-6, all of which were based on chemistry and microbiology subjects.

Fueled by the commitment to further improve the performance of the Department of Pharmacy in  Professional Regulations Commission (PRC)-conducted examinations, the Pharmacy group disclosed that they are adapting a novel strategy. “We are currently geared towards a scheme in which we have identified a review center from which to conduct classes for our Level IV students as early as now,” bared Prof. Aileen O. Camangeg, department chairperson. She said the review classes will continue even after the students graduate. “Although it is not part of the curriculum, we hope that this activity would augment the preparation and the readiness of the takers in dealing with all the included subject matters as early as this time,” she added.

The said scheme has been running every weekend since the semester started and is planned to go on until weekdays during the summer break.